Democrats look to fast-changing Atlanta suburbs to flip power in the state
Democrats in Georgia feel so close to victory in the midterm elections they can almost taste it. And they’re looking to the fast-growing, fast-changing Atlanta suburbs to close the deal.
Once considered the cradle of the state’s modern Republican Party, complete with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 6th Congressional District, the suburban areas of north Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties have not only flipped to the Democrats in some cases, they are also fueling the party’s hopes that the booming, diverse population outside of the Atlanta city limits will translate to electoral wins next week, too.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, was in Alpharetta this week to get out the vote from the area’s large South Asian community.
“The guy who I’m running against has run ads, he wants us to forget them, saying you’ll be deported or departed,” she said of Republican nominee Rick Jackson’s primary ads promising to crack down on illegal immigration. “And he says he doesn’t disagree with a single thing from the guy in the White House.”
That line got groans from the audience at the packed event, where Bottoms was joined by Democrats running for everything from a Forsyth County school board seat to state House and Senate seats currently held by Republicans. The Democratic nominee challenging U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, Tony Kozycki, was there, too. They all agreed that the road to a Democratic majority, and the first Democratic statewide leaders in decades, runs through their communities.
Former state Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, who represented a Gwinnett-based seat until earlier this year, told people to get their friends and cousins to vote for Bottoms for governor, state Sen. Josh McLaurin for lieutenant governor and so on down the ballot.
“I’m 36 years old, and ever since Republicans have taken back power, this is the first time that I have seen us get so close to being able to flip these seats,” she said. “It’s within the margin of effort.”
So far, the signs in the suburbs for Democrats are positive.
Atlanta’s suburbs have absorbed much of Georgia’s population explosion. Census records show the state has grown by more than 500,000 people since 2000, with all of that coming from non-white residents, and much of them settled in Cobb, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.
Early turnout there, along with Republican parts of Cherokee and suburban areas of Fulton County, have surged ahead of the same point in 2022, while turnout in rural Republican areas in the state has mostly stayed flat.
Laura Murvartian, a Democrat from Johns Creek challenging state Sen. Shawn Still in Senate District 48, said she sees the new faces when she’s knocking on doors in her district.
“It’s just a diverse, diverse community, and it’s really changing quite fast,” she said.
Murvartian said the reception she’s getting also tells her Democrats are stronger this year than in 2024.
“I mean, it’s a Democrat paradise right now,” she said. “When we’re out there knocking on doors, people are responding to us. They’re happy that we’re there, and they thank us for being there.”
But Republicans are not giving up their suburban strongholds without a fight. The GOP still holds congressional seats that sweep up much of the Northern Arc, along with state House and Senate seats in more conservative areas of the core suburban counties.
Jackson held a unity rally at an event space in Roswell on Tuesday night, joined by state Sen. Greg Dolezal, the Forsyth County Republican running for lieutenant governor, along with members of the General Assembly from the area and other statewide leaders.
Along with affordability, which Jackson said is a crisis, he said as governor he’d focus on public safety, an issue that spurred some to leave Atlanta for the suburbs in the first place.
“My opponent sided with criminals over victims, left neighborhoods defenseless and took her family to safety on Martha’s Vineyard while leaving other families to fend for themselves,” he said. “That record disqualifies Keisha Lance Bottoms. Bad mayors don’t make good governors.”
Meghana Naik moved to the United States from India as a child. She said she feels like Jackson’s life story is a lot like her own.
“He started with nothing, and I feel like I started with nothing. But his nothing was worse than my nothing,” she said. “That really inspires me.”
But even though she calls herself a “passionate Republican,” she expects many of her Alpharetta neighbors to vote Democratic.
“They keep talking about (Donald) Trump. I’m like, ‘Trump is not on the ticket, people,’” she said.
Preetinder Narang came out for Jackson’s event, too. He said he believes in conservative values and will vote for Jackson and Republicans. But he’s worried by the amount of mobilizing he sees from Democrats nearby.
“They’re on every corner. We have to get more people involved,” he said. “I hope we maintain the red wave.”
At the moment, the only wave sweeping the area seems to be blue. But, as Democrats know only too well from past experience, that’s no guarantee of victory.
Bottoms said she hopes independents and even some suburban Republicans tired of Trump will be with her on Election Day.
“If you want a candidate who believes that we should have better healthcare and education, support for our businesses and housing, then I’m certainly your candidate,” she said in Alpharetta. “But if you believe that Georgia deserves a candidate who doesn’t disagree with Donald Trump on any single policy, then Rick Jackson is your guy.”